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I think that maybe the domestics have had enough and are prepared to weather a strike to squash the union this time. The UAW had better just be making a show for its members with a short strike, because this time they will be the ones hurt by striking. I have a feeling the the discussions between GM, Ford, and Chrysler were not the usual pre-contract negotiation consultation. I think they have decided to draw a line in the sand.

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With the huge financial changes/realizations that have gone on over the last few years, I think/hope GM will hold fast this time. They know that they can't keep on going for much longer by bending to the UAW's demands. If the did, 15-20 years from now (thats being generous) there might not be a GM. It might hurt now to have a prolonged strike, but they will probably be a able to recover long term.

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I can't vote in this survey because of the way the choices are worded. I don't know that any one is to blame or 100% right. I tend to favor GMs position because I think there are very few other kinds of workers that can get 100% health care and I don't think its right to expect that when it isn't the norm for workers in our country, or in competitive, foreign based auto companies that assemble cars in the US.

I also acknowledge that its the Union's job to get the most it can for its workers. I'm hoping that the union / workers can take a longer term view and try to ensure job security for future generations. Because its much cheaper to produce goods else where and have them shipped to the US. I don't think the union will kill GM, not if GM is smart, and there are more and more signs (finally) of that being the case. But GM can and will assemble car elsewhere if their cost of production is too high here. Chinese Buick's anyone?

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GMs survival depends on its ability to be flexible, an attribute that the UAW has no abundance of. Hopefully GM doesn't bend to the UAW strong-arming and mob tactics. The UAW leadership doesn't get it and the membership is too stupid to get it even when they're told. They just line up like lemmings following the leader off the cliff.

Gettlefinger: "They pushed us off the cliff."

No, you pushed yourselves off the cliff. Welcome to the rest of the American workforce, ladies and gentleman. Where you have to be SKILLED to earn a decent wage.

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There's been a lot of shared sacrifice at GM. Tens of thousands of engineers, marketers, and finance guys have lost their jobs. Everyone else has seen major pay cuts, including the executives at the highest levels. The factory workers haven't budged an inch. Last year, those that left were paid to do so voluntarily. It's absurd of the UAW to come into this making demands for MORE MORE MORE, given how much GM has lost over the past few years. I think GM should just close the door on them permanently, and start training new temps.

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There's been a lot of shared sacrifice at GM. Tens of thousands of engineers, marketers, and finance guys have lost their jobs. Everyone else has seen major pay cuts, including the executives at the highest levels. The factory workers haven't budged an inch. Last year, those that left were paid to do so voluntarily. It's absurd of the UAW to come into this making demands for MORE MORE MORE, given how much GM has lost over the past few years. I think GM should just close the door on them permanently, and start training new temps.

I agree whole heartedly.

What makes these people think they have the right to have it so good? My wife works 10X harder than they and I do (but she also makes more than I do at the moment), yet they somehow deserve better pay, benefits, retirement and guaranteed work in the future? Sorry folks, thats not how this world works anymore.

If you have a problem with the executives getting bonuses and their pay, lets see you run a company like GM, make it profitable DESPITE all it has going against it and keep it afloat. Executives can make or break a company, the rank and file cannot.

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I agree with Shantanu, and thinking about it, if GM started temps with the hot products (CTS, Enclave, Acadia, etc.) it wouldn't lose that much because they have plenty of the other vehicles on the lots. If they started the new workers on the hottest products, and then moved on to the next most in-demand products and so on, there wouldn't be a whole lot lost, I don't think.

Only problem would be that the truckers have decided not to ship GM cars, either, so GM couldn't simply keep producing vehicles in Canada and Mexico and keep themselves afloat that way, too.

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I support GM, and I support the workers. I do not support the UAW. I'm ready to see the day when manufacturing pay & benefits are determined by economics, not lobby groups. The workers don't deserved to be taken advantage of, but if the unions dissolved, things would balance out after a short period of chaos. Workers can walk from unfair jobs.

There's been a lot of shared sacrifice at GM. Tens of thousands of engineers, marketers, and finance guys have lost their jobs. Everyone else has seen major pay cuts, including the executives at the highest levels. The factory workers haven't budged an inch. Last year, those that left were paid to do so voluntarily. It's absurd of the UAW to come into this making demands for MORE MORE MORE, given how much GM has lost over the past few years. I think GM should just close the door on them permanently, and start training new temps.

Again, quoted for truth but in reality gm is not going to get rid of the UAW. Not gonna happen.

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I support GM, and I support the workers. I do not support the UAW. I'm ready to see the day when manufacturing pay & benefits are determined by economics, not lobby groups. The workers don't deserved to be taken advantage of, but if the unions dissolved, things would balance out after a short period of chaos. Workers can walk from unfair jobs.

Exactly. No one would force them to stay at the job. I would bet at least half of them are willing to keep their jobs for a reasonable pay cut because it would still be the highest paying job they could get. Making $25-35 an hour to hand thing to a machine is ridiculous (I realize they do some more important stuff, but still, it is quite easy). What about people such as teachers that go to school for 4 years or more so they can teach these people's children so that their children can get decent jobs? The teachers could just as easily take a union job and make more money than they would be making through teaching, yet they go to school (paying big bucks) so that everyone else can benefit from it.

What I am trying to say is that by giving these people such high wages for what they do and such great benefits, it's setting a terrible example. Sure, we do need people like this, because otherwise we wouldn't have cars being made, but making $70k/year + having great benefits does not set a very good example for high school kids to go to college to become something that makes that same amount in the end. These workers should be making a good chunk of change so that they can support their family, but what did they do to deserve to have the best benefits of almost anyone and make quite a good paycheck? Fail out of school and become a scab?

I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but that's how I feel about assembly line workers making such good wages.

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I've been laid off 3 times in my relatively short working life. I have no sympathy for these people. Especially knowing they're about to get some ridiculous signing bonus. There are so many people who would love to have their jobs with their wages.

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the uaw never has. for that reason, its time to do whatever it takes to bust the union and send them packing for good.

america as a whole has so much venom for people who cannot play as a team. 95% of Americans are getting the shaft and have no tolerance for those who think they deserve more than what the rest of us are getting.

i actually am ok with GM shutting down for several months to bust the union if they can afford to.

GM should actually sue the UAW for disruption of the business and also because union labor creates slander within the eyes of the public, harming sales. GM would have a more positive image if they could shed the union.

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It's ironic how several of the posters have come down hard on the UAW workers and their high wages but not management. It seems to be the American way of accepting such wealth with celebrety's, CEO''s etc. compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world. Are the people running GM, Ford and Chrysler auto enthusiast. Some are, but the majority come from business backgrounds that are years apart from anything automotive, yet they will get such inflated wages and bonus's.

When you see the poles, the former Big 3 are not making junks anymore. Sure there still will be some problems, but is it the workers fault if they are manufacturing a vehicle that the public does not want to buy? If the Big 3 still had their market share they had twenty five years ago, would any one be bastardizing the UAW workers.

It does not matter where we are employed, there is always deadwood. I know there is a lot of union people who we can classify as deadwood, but you will find it in non union workshops as well.

I think were the big unions have screwed up, was twenty years ago when they started to go overboard with human rights issues where as they should of been concentrating on the hiring agencies that supply the Temp workers to the work force. In the past the norm was always 90 days and you are full time employed. Today a lot of the temp workers are working over a year at a wage slightly above minimum if they are lucky and still not get hired on full time. This is where a lot of the new Japanese companies manufacturing in North America get their advantage. The former Big 3 still are getting a lot of their parts from the long established manufactures over here, where as the Japanese set up shop and bring along Asian companies who then hire through a Temp agency.

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It's ironic how several of the posters have come down hard on the UAW workers and their high wages but not management. It seems to be the American way of accepting such wealth with celebrety's, CEO''s etc. compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world. Are the people running GM, Ford and Chrysler auto enthusiast. Some are, but the majority come from business backgrounds that are years apart from anything automotive, yet they will get such inflated wages and bonus's.

When you see the poles, the former Big 3 are not making junks anymore. Sure there still will be some problems, but is it the workers fault if they are manufacturing a vehicle that the public does not want to buy? If the Big 3 still had their market share they had twenty five years ago, would any one be bastardizing the UAW workers.

It does not matter where we are employed, there is always deadwood. I know there is a lot of union people who we can classify as deadwood, but you will find it in non union workshops as well.

I think were the big unions have screwed up, was twenty years ago when they started to go overboard with human rights issues where as they should of been concentrating on the hiring agencies that supply the Temp workers to the work force. In the past the norm was always 90 days and you are full time employed. Today a lot of the temp workers are working over a year at a wage slightly above minimum if they are lucky and still not get hired on full time. This is where a lot of the new Japanese companies manufacturing in North America get their advantage. The former Big 3 still are getting a lot of their parts from the long established manufactures over here, where as the Japanese set up shop and bring along Asian companies who then hire through a Temp agency.

Management probably does need its own "shake-out" and slim-down in areas.

I worked as a temp employee in a non-union major manufacturing plant for a year, and did not get hired (though they did call me about a month after I left). I did level 3 work at level 2 pay with no benefits, as did a number of people around me. Here's the thing: when people got frustrated & left their temp jobs, it had nothing to do with the money or job - it was still WAY better than any other job at the same skill level in the area. The reason most of them left was because they felt frustrated by the discrepancy between themselves and the "full time" workers. Why do these manufacturing companies hire temps for such long periods of time? BECAUSE OF THE UNIONS! To keep the unions at bay, they have to create the illusion of job security. They do that by avoiding layoffs of "full-time" employees. The reality of it is the temp employees were simply the lowest level of production employment, and thus were the first to be affected by layoffs. By the lowest level of employees consisting of "temp" employees, they didn't officially have layoffs, and those in "full time" employment felt more secure in their jobs. In fact, they were/are only as secure in their jobs as someone who has worked their way up from the bottom rung of employees. I watched as the good "temp" employees got hired one by one as the openings came. The only reason I didn't get a job offer sooner was because I was a lazy bum & didn't apply for a long time, until after the few/rare hiring waves went through. Good employees moved up, not so good ones didn't.

The unions have created their own problem in the manufacturing industry's dependence upon "temp agencies." If the factories could employ people as needed without fear of union, they would hire more people "for real."